Academics call for exams to be anonymous
Three KU Leuven academics want to make exams anonymous in the hope of removing bias when papers are graded
Blind grading
Els Vandesande, Johan Lievens and Andy Thys made the suggestion in an op-ed for De Standaard. They suggest replacing the student’s name with a number, which would reduce the influence of prejudice about someone’s background, gender or reputation and thus improve equality of opportunity.
“The unconscious association between a Flemish name and enthusiasm for studying could mean that a lecturer evaluates students with a less Flemish-sounding name proportionally worse,” the academics said.
Lecturers do have biases, both conscious and unconscious, according to Peter Van Petegem, education sciences professor at Antwerp University. “There is a chance that a lecturer will look less thoroughly for mistakes in an exam by a good student who does less well than expected,” he said.
However, in large groups of students, for example, professors don’t know everyone by name. And bias is not always negative, he said. “It can be positive if a lecturer takes into account a student’s track record over the whole year,” he said.
“We will never impose this,” KU Leuven rector Rik Torfs said on Twitter. “Students are not anonymous people.”
Photo: KU Leuven/Rob Stevens
